The struggles of Saburou Eguchi

Part 1: Why am I shrinking!

—Saburou's POV—

Life is bland. That's not just me being pessimistic either. Life has grown boring, wars have ended which I guess is good, but this world, my life has become a forced schedule. I can't enjoy myself anymore, or my cooking. These famous people just use me and then toss me away, and I have barely anything to show for it. Money doesn't interest me all too much, and it will never show my parents that I was worth their time, so what's the point.

As I walked through the empty streets back to the restaurant I helped out at, these thoughts continued to race through my head. My family, they were the best people in their fields...well maybe. I know Haruto is the best pilot out there, and Ichika is definitely the best medical scientist I've ever met but...Daisuke seems to be wasting his life. I mean, I'm not mad about it, teaching is needed and all but...why couldn't he just use what he learned for something beneficial to himself. Him and I are the same in that way though...we both discarded everything we learnt and went for the jobs we thought would make us happy. At least he was correct.

Opening the door, the musty smell of grease and stale water left out filled my nostrils. Great. Whenever I left, these people would just slack off, never doing anything right. They didn't clear, or put away, and waited for me to come back in order to finish it off for them. Taking my glasses off, I stored them away in my pocket, walking into the kitchen and ignoring everyone else as my apron went over my head. Guess it was time to start the day.

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2 hours have passed since I got back here, and still nothing was exciting or worthwhile. Sure, it was loud and chaotic, but those aren't the same as excitement. Excitement is like riding a rollercoaster, not just chaos, not just quick movement of loud noises. It was something else, something unexplainable. I've always viewed life as exciting, but not anymore. Maybe it happened because I lost contact with my family? Daisuke always tried to talk to me, but I keep blowing him off. It's better this way. Now both of us can focus on our own lives without hindering each-other.

Looks like I've gotten lost in my thoughts again, because by the time I looked around again, the lunch rush was over and we had one customer, an old lady, dressed in all black, a small purple feather attached to what looked like a robe, and a small stick in her hand, with what seemed to be a lifeless bird sat on it, probably fake. It would be hard to see she was an old lady, since her face was covered, but her wrinkled hands seemed to show how old she truly was. She was sat at one of our tables, waiting to be served, but the server was looking all terrified for some reason. Good grief, guess I'm doing his job too.

Exiting the kitchen and approaching the old lady, the smell instantly hit me. It was worse than how the restaurant had smelt. It was as if a frog had died in a swamp, been eaten and then regurgitated onto the woman. I almost threw up in my own mouth, but I had to press on. "Hello their miss, my name is Saburou, and I'll be serving you today" I said, trying my hardest to seem polite, even though I didn't want to be here. She looked up at me, shaking her head with what appeared to be a smile, and looking down at the menu. What the hell? Did she not want anything? Then why come here? Whatever, I've had enough of her wasting my time.

"Look lady, you either order something, or leave, simple as...you've got 10 seconds" I said, counting down in my head. That really seemed to tick her off. With one hand, she grabbed her stick, opening up a pocket and sprinkling some weird red liquid over it, before waking me on the head. I fell down, rubbing my head with my hand, now being covered in the red juice. She said some strange words, in a weird language, before the room turned black and then red and them to normal. When I stood up, she was gone and everyone was looking at me weird. "Dude...you need to go to the bathroom like right now!" exclaimed the young teenage boy who worked as a server, to which I did.

When I got to the bathroom to wash the red liquid off, I looked at myself in the mirror. I could see something was off...was I shorter. I quickly turned on the tap, splashing my head and hands with it, but then it happened. I looked back up at the mirror and saw myself shrinking. Like, actually shrinking, but I looked different. I looked like I was 12 again, then 11, 10, 9, 8....at that point, my head got fuzzy and I started to fade out of consciousness. I crawled for the fire exit, to get some air, but as the door opened....I blacked out